budget in place by the July 1 beginning of the fiscal year, state law sets a Sept. 15 deadline.

School Board President Gerald Keller predicted that the board will adopt a budget by the end of July.

"We'll have better numbers then so we'll have a better idea what we have to work with," he said.

The school system faces a projected $8.4 million deficit in the coming year, despite $6 million in proposed cuts, and a $4.3 million shortfall this year. Millet's budget calls for using the system's cash reserves to balance the budget in both years, but the money will be gone at this time next year, unless there is a dramatic increase in tax revenues.

"That's when we're going to have a real problem," said Felix Bouton, the system's finance director.

Board members Patrick Sanders and Russell Jack said they want board members to sit in on negotiations with the teachers union.

"The administration is negotiating on behalf of the board, ... I'm getting information from both sides, and sometimes the information differs," Sanders said. "I would like to be there to be sure that what we're hearing is accurate."

But a quorum of board members might require that the meetings be open to the public, rather than closed sessions that are allowed for negotiations between the union and administrators.

The union presented a new proposal to the board five minutes before the meeting began, board members and Millet said.

Board member Russ Wise said the union proposal included leave without pay for teachers as a cost-cutting measure.

Millet said she is frustrated with public perception about the process.

"I keep hearing 'When are you going to produce a balanced budget?' Well, we presented a balanced budget. It included a reduction in force. It included (cutting) administrative positions," she said.

"As superintendent, my top priority is the education of the students, so if any of those things affect instruction, I'm going to have a hard time going along with it even if the board and the union agree to it, " Millet said. "Right now, we're moving in the right direction with our fourth- and eighth-grade LEAP performance, and it's not fair to our students to do anything differently."

A 4 p.m. workshop meeting scheduled by the board to go over the budget was canceled because of a lack of a quorum.